Kamiku ngura

$1,370.00

This is Kanpala, ngayuku kamiku ngura (my grandmother’s country). This painting depicts life in Spinifex Country. The old people would walk from rockhole to rockhole collecting wild foods on the way. They knew the bush plants that were good to eat, how to make flour by grinding the small millet seeds they collected and then baking bread on the fire. They knew the special plants for medicine. This country is good country.

Michelle Anderson has direct family line of great Spinifex painters. Her grandmothers are Myrtle Pennington and Myrtle’s younger sister Carlene West. As a young mother herself, Michelle watched as the acclaimed painting careers of both Myrtle and Carlene grew to great heights. She became the primary carer, as Myrtle aged, and would sit, watch and listen as her grandmother painted the significant sites of Mulplya and Kanpa. Myrtle loved having her granddaughter by her side and watching the subtle generational transference of Tjukurpa. Michelle began to assist Myrtle during her final few paintings before Myrtle became immobile by her own frailty. And in a short space of time, Michelle has succeeded in expanding her own creativity whilst keeping grounded in all she has learnt. The result is as sublime as it is individual, with the compositions expressing a newfound creative palette from the roots of rich legacy.